The 5 Best VPNs for Australia

Having a VPN is great and opens up the internet to a whole other level. However, when we first start starting about VPNs, we tend to assume we are talking to an audience based in either the US or UK. We tend to forget about the people living halfway around the world who are also opposed by their Governments in terms of privacy and logging.

Australians are also exposed to the harsh privacy and censorship on the internet and they have many websites banned in their country. Having an Australian VPN is essential if you want to make sure you have complete online freedom to do as you please. Australia’s laws are particularly harsh, with the Government requiring that ISPs keeping their data and customer logs for at least 2 years! The police are also allowed to access these files without a warrant or special requirements.

The Top 5 VPNs for Australia

We know the struggle that many of you face when it comes to online privacy. So, to lend a helping hand, we have put together the 5 best VPNs for Australia so you can give yourself more online freedom. These services provide excellent speeds, locations, and solid encryptions to protect you from your Government and ISP.

Without further ado, here are out 5 favorite VPNs when it comes to Australian privacy and security.

Buffered

Buffered always makes these lists and for a variety of reasons. The one being because the service is lightning fast! If you’re after a VPN that you need to perform well, even if you’re living halfway around the world, Buffered is an excellent choice to make. They have great connection speeds, so when you’re streaming or torrenting, you won’t see a huge drop in download or upload speed.

Buffered also has a decent sized network, which is needed when you’re in a very remote country. They have hundreds of servers worldwide in a number of countries – 41 to be precise. These locations are also torrent-friendly, so you can access all your favorite sites, including Pirate Bay. They also have a cool feature known as Port Discovery, allowing you to access locked Wi-Fi through secret open ports that normal devices cannot find. With all these unique features, Buffered becomes a sought-after service, especially for Australians.

They offer a 30-day money back guarantee and will automatically refund you in 7-days if you haven’t used the VPN. This company is honest and highly recommended.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN normally sites at the tops of this list but, for this time, we have selected the second place position. Nonetheless, ExpressVPN is still the best VPN available on the market for its incredible speeds and tough encryption. They have optimized servers and allow for torrenting, allowing you to engage in P2P freely without limits. Their network of servers is one of the largest and they currently operate in 94 different countries. A great thing to hear if you’re living down under.

As for their encryption, they offer OpenVPN security protocols with a 256-bit AES encryption. Excellent if you’re using public Wi-Fi and need that extra protection. They are also based in the British Virgin Islands, meaning their privacy policy/logs policy are fantastic. In addition, they have a bundle of features, including a kill switch, stealth mode, and DNS leak prevention.

Although this company is a little more expensive than Buffered, it is still definitely worth the price.

IPVanish

IPVanish is another common household name when we talk about VPNs. They are a huge service and supply many individuals around the world, including Australia. IPVanish is another VPN that is known for its great connection speeds, which (again) is something you need if you’re living in Australia. They also have tough encryptions and a massive server network, spreading over an impressive 60 countries. They have a range of features that add to their service and allow for P2P activity, which many Australian torrenters will enjoy hearing.

Despite being based in the US, the company doesn’t keep any logs of its users which is always nice to hear. Their speeds make them excellent for streaming and gaming and IPVanish can be used with a wide array of devices. You can even connect it to a router and protect all your devices on one connection. They feature a DNS leak prevention switch, kill switch and can be used with 5 different devices with one account.

If you’re interested in IPVanish, they offer a 7-day money back guarantee and they’re a lot cheaper than most VPNs, especially ExpressVPN.

CyberGhost

We are a big fan of CyberGhost over here at Private VPN Service. They have been a fan favorite for many years because if their free and premium plans that they offer. Some sites have gone on to find that their free service is no longer available but they are actually mistaken. The free version can still be found when creating an account and downloading their client. The reason CyberGhost is so good for Australia is that of the speeds they offer, as well as the streaming and torrenting options. Their speeds are impressive and their servers are optimized for specific jobs.

As well as their fully fledged features, CyberGhost uses OpenVPN as their primary security protocols with a 256-bit cipher. They have been criticized for their use of SHA-1 but reassure it is a safe encryption. CyberGhost operates in only 27 countries (which is the lowest on this list).

The only issues with this VPN are that they don’t have 24/7 customer support and some logs are kept. Despite this, we strongly suggest CyberGhost for Australian users.

NordVPN

NordVPN is a favorite of mine because it’s tough encryption and snazzy client. As well security, NordVPN also is a very good VPN for Australian use because of their network sizes and various security features. NordVPN is rated very higher by our users and has a ton of extra features, including double encryption and Tor over VPN. They are also based in Panama which makes this a great VPN in terms of Governmental supervision.

As for their location, NordVPN operates in over 50 countries and allows for P2P. They even have optimized servers for specific tasks, like streaming and gaming. Their speeds are impressive but have been known to drop with certain servers, so make sure you have the kill switch enabled. They use 256-bit encryptions with OpenVPN security protocols.

This is a high-quality VPN that also has a 30-day money back guarantee. So you can try this out completely risk-free.

What to Consider When Choosing a VPN for Australia

So there are the 5 best VPNs for Australian use. They all have large server networks and offer great speeds. Although those are our personal favorites, some of you may disagree. Because of this, you may want to consider using another VPN service, which is completely fine. In doing so, you need to know what to look for, so here are a few considerations to make before purchasing.

Speed

Because Australia is a bit out of the way, it is important that you don’t let your location slow you down. So when you’re looking for a VPN for Australia, you need to identify one that has decent speeds, so your connection doesn’t down. This is very important if you plan on using the VPN for streaming and torrenting, which many Australians will do. These uses use a lot of bandwidth and you will need a VPN that can keep up.

When using your chosen VPN, it might be better to use servers in China and Japan, as they are your closest servers outside of your country. Connecting to US servers is fine but you will see a difference in the speeds.

Locations

Having plenty of locations to choose from is not only important but is also a luxury. When you’re using your VPN, you want to have plenty of choices when it comes to unblocking websites and gaining access to restricted content. Having plenty of locations enables you to have choice, which is always welcome. In addition, the more servers there are, the higher the chance is of streaming servers like Netflix being unblocked. Services like ExpressVPN can still unblock Netflix because of their server count and stealth abilities.

Security (Including Logs)

Australia is just like any other country when it comes to privacy and data retention. Because of this, it is important to have a VPN that will keep you secure and hide you from the watching eyes of the Australian Government, as well as your ISP. You need to make sure that your VPN has a tough encryption (256-bit at least) and you should always use OpenVPN when connecting to servers. If your connection is intercepted, your IP can be exposed to sites which can get you in big trouble, especially if you’re torrenting.

Conclusion

Living in Australia is difficult when you want to have internet freedom without being watched. The issue is that, by living Australian, you are living very far away from many VPN servers and this can have an impact on your speeds and security. Using a VPN for Australia can give you access to a lot of blocked content, allowing you to stream and torrent all day long. Above are the 5 best VPNs on the market that work well with Australia.

If none of them take your fancy, use the criteria below to identify another VPN that we may have missed. With the right research, you’ll find a VPN that you can happily use in Australia.